Eli-te repeat

Feb. 5, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning poses with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. GETTY

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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Giants' 21-17 win over the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, in Indianapolis. Chris O'Meara, AP

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning poses with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. GETTY

INDIANAPOLIS - When the drama ended Sunday, with a Tom Brady Hail Mary landing incomplete in the end zone just inches from Rob Gronkowski's fingertips, a Super Bowl pinata erupted at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Silver streamers rained from the roof. Four confetti cannons fired tiny shreds of red, white and blue ribbon upwards. And the New York Giants raced wildly in divergent directions, delirious after their latest championship triumph.

In another down-to-the-wire classic, the Giants captured Super Bowl XLVI thanks to the poise of indisputably elite quarterback Eli Manning, the unfathomable body control of receiver Mario Manningham and a strange, final-minute touchdown by Ahmad Bradshaw that provided a 21-17 victory.

Bradshaw's 6-yard touchdown run with 57 seconds left capped another remarkable Manning rally, this one in the form of an 88-yard touchdown drive on his final series of the season. Manning's magic came four years and two days after he led a similarly clutch championship-winning 83-yard march to beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

The biggest play Sunday was a 38-yard Manning-to-Manningham completion, a bomb down the left sideline that the Giants receiver caught between New England's Sterling Moore and Patrick Chung while barely managing to tap both feet down inbounds.

Eight plays later, the Patriots allowed Bradshaw to score the season's final points, even with the Giants running back trying to stop short of the end zone but failing and falling backward into the most significant score of his career.

“It's the greatest thing in the world,” Bradshaw said. “It's the greatest feeling in my life.”

For the Giants, Sunday's triumph completed an amazing six-game winning streak during which they transformed from a mediocre 7-7 squad in mid-December into the unlikely Super Bowl champs.

They made it to Indianapolis thanks to a defensive surge that saw them surrender just 39 total points in playoff victories over Atlanta, Green Bay and San Francisco.

Coach Tom Coughlin insisted “the prize” was still within reach. Now the Giants are holding tight to that Vince Lombardi Trophy.

“What I was concerned with was these guys making their own history,” Coughlin said. “This is such a wonderful thing, these guys carving their own history.”

Against New England on Sunday, they did enough defensively to hold Brady's offense in check. The Patriots' 17 points matched their lowest output of the season. The Giants' biggest defensive plays came in the fourth quarter via an interception by linebacker Chase Blackburn with 14:17 left, the game's only turnover and a clutch sack by Justin Tuck with 36 seconds left.

Brady (27 for 41, 276 yards, two TDs) was most brilliant on New England's final drive of the first half, a 14-play march on which he completed all 10 of his passing attempts for 100 yards. The final bullet of that possession was a 4-yard scoring strike to Danny Woodhead. That gave the Patriots a 10-9 halftime lead following a first half that seemed to be controlled by New York.

During one two-possession stretch sandwiching halftime, Brady set a Super Bowl record with 16 consecutive completions. Those went to six different receivers and chewed up 154 yards, the Giants temporarily unable to disrupt his rhythm nor able to account for New England's dizzying array of underneath routes.

The Giants dominated the first 13 minutes, running 19 plays to New England's one. Tuck provided the first fireworks, putting enough pressure on Brady to force the Patriots quarterback into an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone, resulting in a 2-0 New York lead early in the first quarter.

The Giants followed immediately with a methodical nine-play, 79-yard touchdown drive capped by a 2-yard Eli Manning to Victor Cruz dart.

Manning's precision and poise were evident all night. He completed his first nine passes but proved even more heroic on his final drive, connecting with Manningham three times for 56 yards and Hakeem Nicks twice for 18 more yards.

As thrilling as the Giants-Patriots showdown had been in 2008, the sequel proved just as compelling. The tension lasted to the final play, that championship-deciding bomb from Brady thrown into an end zone mosh pit. When it landed, the Giants had conquered again.

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